72:8 May he rule 1 from sea to sea, 2
and from the Euphrates River 3 to the ends of the earth!
74:13 You destroyed 4 the sea by your strength;
you shattered the heads of the sea monster 5 in the water.
1 tn The prefixed verbal form is a (shortened) jussive form, indicating this is a prayer of blessing.
2 sn From sea to sea. This may mean from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Dead Sea in the east. See Amos 8:12. The language of this and the following line also appears in Zech 9:10.
3 tn Heb “the river,” a reference to the Euphrates.
4 tn The derivation and meaning of the Polel verb form פּוֹרַרְתָּ (porarta) are uncertain. The form may be related to an Akkadian cognate meaning “break, shatter,” though the biblical Hebrew cognate of this verb always appears in the Hiphil or Hophal stem. BDB 830 s.v. II פָּרַר suggests a homonym here, meaning “to split; to divide.” A Hitpolel form of a root פָּרַר (parar) appears in Isa 24:19 with the meaning “to shake violently.”
5 tn The Hebrew text has the plural form, “sea monsters” (cf. NRSV “dragons”), but it is likely that an original enclitic mem has been misunderstood as a plural ending. The imagery of the mythological sea monster is utilized here. See the note on “Leviathan” in v. 14.